EUTHANASIA

Euthanasia

Euthanasia

Introduction

The word euthanasia comes from the Greek word euthanatos, which means eu = good, thanatos = death, meaning "good death" philosophical term has evolved over time and currently remains a matter of intense ethical debate that transcends the field of medicine or thanatology. In our civilization, euthanasia is a challenge from the ethical and legal. Some terminally ill ask to be left to die in order to complete their suffering. That presents a dilemma not only for the doctors and family, but also for society and the modern state(Campbell, 1997).

Euthanasia is the act resulting in the killing self-defense to end the pain and suffering, and is considered among some of the things people volunteer or voluntary depending on entity authorized to death.

Euthanasia is a theme which keeps preoccupying the minds and inviting discussions and polls, lectures and papers, even though its rejection not only by Church authorities but also by ethicists, jurists and theologians is rather universal. One might have expected that the wide agreement of the experts and authorities would have settled the question. But uncertainties continue to exist, and the new medical possibilities of the prolongation of life of terminally ill patients still further contribute to the apprehension of and to the concern with the object (Foley, 2006).

History of Euthanasia

The word "euthanasia" appears in the seventeenth century philosopher Francis Bacon attributed to its creation during the Renaissance and it was conceived as "The acceleration of death in a sick man."

However, there are records that before Bacon already discussed the right of people to decide their own death. The first meaning of euthanasia in the Greco-Roman, not to be called that way, was "honest” (Death with a happy death, honest), it means to die well, without pain, and This idea does not account for help in dying, as it does of euthanasia and assisted suicide(Pool, 2000).

In the middle ages, Thomas Moore, describing in his famous Utopia, the ideal state is said by some to be the dying provide all care and solidarity . But consider that in cases of extraordinary pain may be advised to end his life. You can kill the patient if he agrees, depriving him of food or administering a poison. It also requires the permission of the authorities and priests to prevent abuses that would follow.

Ethics has been involved in the training of medical professionals, which has focused its efforts to preserve life above all circumstances (Engelhardt, 1986).

However, other philosophers of antiquity were said to the contrary. Thus, Plato (427-337 BC) said in The Republic: "You will die who are not healthy body." The Stoics (Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius), with dignity as an argument, they would have been in favor of euthanasia. Seneca is an example: "suicide is preferable to a meaningless life and suffering." Epictetus, for its part, preaches the death as an affirmation of free will.

The Situation Today

After the theme of euthanasia had for a long time been taboo on account of the shocking excesses ...